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06/01/2010: "My Transverse Myelitis"

I've just spent nearly a month in the hospital dealing with an auto-immune syndrome triggered, they think, by a tetnus shot. Transverse Myelitis occurs when the immune system attacks the sheathing on the nerve axons of the spinal chord. In my case, and as I understand it in many cases, this causes paralysis most often from the rib cage down. I was riding my bicycle to my office prior to classes on Monday May 3rd when my left leg began to loose strength. I just couldn't stand on it to walk. Luckily I could still pedal as the right leg made up for the left. I though I might be having a stroke but decided not to stop at the hospital on my way...it is only about 3/4 miles from my office. I made it to my office, got on the computer and looked up my symptoms...I'd had a little weakness in my right hand and arm earlier in the day. So stroke was out of the question...it is always either one side or the other. Never both sides.

I decided I couldn't teach if I couldn't stand up so I tried to take a couple steps across the room and realized that now my right leg was loosing strength. I called 911 and the squad arrived within 5 minutes.



By 7 pm I was completely paralized from the diaphram down to my toes. Couldn't move a thing. Mystep son is a doctor, a 2 year resident at Columbis in NYC. He was in touch with his mom who was with me giving him my symptoms and any vitals that she could get from the nurses. they were still trying to cancel out a stroke or something vascular as I'd had a heart attack several years ago and now wore a heart stent. My step son told my new wife of 3 days that it wasn't vascular it was neurological and to ask for a neurologist. It took the hospital nearly 20 hours to get a neurologist to seem me. He immediately put me on a plasma drip assuming that it might be something called Gilliom Barre Syndrome or GBS. It is a little more aggressive than what it turned out to be. My neurologist took some more scans and located the liesian on my spinal chord and renamed it Transverse Myelitis. This is a less aggressive syndrome with a somewhat better prognosis.

My drug therapy was changed immediately to a steroid drip to reduce inflamation. Within a couple of hours I could move my toes on my right foot. Within the next few days I got my toes back, my ankles and a little of my hip movement. After a week I was released from one hospital and sent to a rehab center at the local university. There i began to heal and use whatever muscle control that came back sometimes on a daily basis.I learned to dress myself every morning, transfer myself from bed to my wheel chair and began to build stamina in my legs.

After the first week I had a setback... perhaps I'd pushed myself too hard. I threw a blood clot into my lung. It was excedingly painful and they sent me up to the main hospital for a week. There I continued to heal and began to use my feet to push myself around in the wheel chair. After a week they sent me back to rehab.

I've been gaining everyday. On Friday I learned to get in and out of a vehicle from my chair. I'd been standing at the parallel bars and even walking with the bars to steady myself. This morning I was able to usea walker for the first time. I'm coming home on Friday. There will probably be some outpatient physical and occupational therapy that will carry over for a few more weeks. I hope to be walking again in time to walk into my classes in the fall.

I made a few sketches during therapy and while on the rehab campus. I have some ideas for a series of paintings that will take off from these sketches.

Don't know what to say about this event in my life...I wasn't afraid. I thought it was intellectually interesting for the most part. There were only a few moments in the mornings when I'd wake up that I thought...these are my legs that won't move. But having someone in the profession givining background information and having looked my circumstances up on the net I was quite sure I'd recover most of my movement. I have a ways to go but in fact I am recuperating beautifully.

Replies: 29 Comments

on Tuesday, May 10th, Haber said

Thanks Ron. Good to hear from you. Yesterday in physical therapy I "went down". They don't like to call it falling. But for the first time I was able to stand up from the floor with no assistance either human or furniturial (is that a word?) I just stood up. I'd only done it once before at home but there was no one around to log it. Haber

on Wednesday, February 16th, Larissa said

That sounds so frightening! How odd that you sounded (and still sound) so calm about the whole thing.

Recover well and I hope nothing like that happens again!

Lumiere Condos

on Wednesday, February 16th, Larissa said

That sounds so frightening! How odd that you sounded (and still sound) so calm about the whole thing.

Recover well and I hope nothing like that happens again!

Lumiere Condos

on Tuesday, January 11th, dvd movie said

good

on Friday, October 8th, ugg boot said

I am sorry heard your setback.i hope you are back to yourself as soon as possible.good lucky for you!

ugg boot

on Friday, July 30th, walt said

Thanks Jackie, but you know even when something like this happens life goes on...I still have bills to pay, people to get along with and artworks to make!

on Friday, July 30th, jackie said

Hats off, Walter! Each one of us, artists, should look up to you for courage! Keep up!
With love

on Saturday, July 17th, walt said

thanks eurodebt! I'm doing better every day.

on Friday, July 16th, eurodebt said

Very sad I wish you gods speed in your recovery.

on Friday, July 16th, walt said

yesterday we emptied our storage unit and took about 100 paintings to the gallery at Fort Hayes School of the Arts here in Columbus. It is overwhelming to see so much of ones life all in one place. I still have 1-200 works on paper including drawings, prints, photos, graphic design work and illustration to mount and frame. All in all the exhibition will cover 40 years of all aspects of my artistic career from 1970 to 2010.

on Thursday, July 15th, walt said

It's been about two and a half months since this reaction and I'm at an interesting place...not really a plateau but certainly not the dramatic improvements I'd had once they figured it out and began the steroids. I'm not having the big 1st's like standing at the bars, or doing stairs. But now it is small motor coordination and strength. My therapist Heather has me up to level 7 on the Nu Step, a kind of stationary bike, and I'm doing about 10 to 15 minutes before I start my PT. I can do about 55-80 steps a minute. She has me doing side steps, kicking and pulling a chair down a 40' tape line, a battery of exercises to improve both leg and core strength. So it isn't dramatic but today I'm moving a storage unit full of paintings to the gallery that is hosting my 40 year retrospective. I have help of course...I can lift, but cannot carry the larger works. And I tire easily. We took a load to Fort Hayes Shot Tower Gallery day before yesterday. Today I think it will be more like 3 or 4 loads. And while I can't climb the steps to my studio safely (no hand rails) I have been filling my time preparing this show. So what I couldn't do 4 weeks ago I can do today. I'll be exhausted even though everyone else will be doing the heavy lifting. I have about a month left to finish framing the small works on paper, photographs, graphic design work, prints and illustrations and prepping the digital video projects to be projected.

The show will open about the time fall semester begins. It's going to be a great start to the new school year.

on Saturday, July 10th, contemporary art said

thanks for sharing this

on Thursday, July 1st, walt said

Thanks Ron. Good to hear from you. Yesterday in physical therapy I "went down". They don't like to call it falling. But for the first time I was able to stand up from the floor with no assistance either human or furniturial (is that a word?) I just stood up. I'd only done it once before at home but there was no one around to log it.

on Thursday, July 1st, Ron Massey said

Hi Walter,
I haven't been here for quite sometime,... just chanced along to read all this.
Glad to hear that you're recovering and can perceive progress with every passing day,... that's really important!
Even had to laugh a little at your cool professorial distancing from the situation which reminded me a little of the stories of Richard Feynman and the lump of plutonium on his desk..... he'd probably have looked it all up on internet first(if it had existed then) before going to the hospital! I suspect its a fairly common thing these days,... whether its wise is the question,... and the answer is probably double-edged.
Keep getting better Walt....onward to your exhibition,... which I hope will be a success.
Ron

on Tuesday, June 29th, Francisco Vidal said

my friend, i wish full recovery and still drawing is a very porful
held
you are am artist have strem
with you
francisco vidal

on Sunday, June 27th, vijay said

I put a comment up here, Walt, but it doesn't seem to have gone through. I mentioned that the sense of our own impermanence is something we need to be reminded of every once in a while. It gives us a reason to do what we do.
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Apart from that I sincerely wish you a speedy recovery. Next time I'm up your way, I'll be sure to give you a call.

on Sunday, June 27th, vijay said

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on Saturday, June 26th, walt said

Thanks Laria, I'm still healing...a little everyday. It is noticable, palpable...I did things this morning I couldn't do two mornings ago. It's just that it will take months to regain what I lost in just 4 hours. So the spasms will continue even after most of my mobility has returned? The spasms are the only thing that impedes my walking. I can walk without physical support. But when I have one of the involuntary spasms it all but knocks me on my butt.

on Thursday, June 24th, Laria Saunders said

Walter I'm sorry to hear you got TM. I have partial TM and it can be very difficult. Did they do a spinal tap? My lesion has finally disappeared but I still get remnant effects (spasticity). the medical world doesn't have much to offer with TM so if you ever want a healer who can help. A healer I know has helped me tremendously and i think is why the lesion is gone for me. Take Care and keep up with your art as much as possible.

on Tuesday, June 22nd, walt said

I also tried to make a comment and for whatever reason it didn't post. Sorry Brad everyone else...life did get the better of me for a while. But I can still paint...my hands and arms were little affected...some tingling is about all. I haven't been able to get up into the studio is the problem. Although I'm climbing stairs in the house I have no banisters in the studio to grab hold of.

I'm getting my legs back under me so to speak. I am walking using crutches and walker around the yard and in the house...I am preparing work for a large exhibition...I've spent the last week sorting through photos to be exhibited...I rarely exhibit my photography...This will include one of the largest showings of photos both historical and artistic. The paintings are already in a storage facility ready to be hung. I have some sculpture that I need to put back together and prepare. Watercolors are already framed for the most part, I want to get some sketches from my books. It'll all come together in August. It is what keeps me on track this summer.

on Sunday, June 20th, BradMM said

Geez, Walt,
I am always last to know - my fault - we were suppose to make contact the first of the year - but, It seems things got out of hand - or we came to face new pages being written before us... You say you were married just 3 days before this all happened? I think you have not mentioned that any of this has affected your artistic abilities - so you still can express yourself with your chosen mediums as before? I am happy you are insured, and got the right treatment you needed more quickly than if you had been admitted as just another uninsured American. Geez, Walter, I just wish you well. So much to consider, reconsider, face, or turn away from. Best wishes, mighty hopes, severely thinking positive thoughts to pass along your way... Talk to you soon... - Sincerely, Brad

on Tuesday, June 15th, Andrew said

I put a comment up here, Walt, but it doesn't seem to have gone through. I mentioned that the sense of our own impermanence is something we need to be reminded of every once in a while. It gives us a reason to do what we do.
Apart from that I sincerely wish you a speedy recovery. Next time I'm up your way, I'll be sure to give you a call.

on Sunday, June 13th, Cecil Herring said

Dear Walter: When I saw your photo at the top of Absolute Arts home page I immediately went to your blog. I am shocked and upset about your sickness, Walt. I'm glad you are going to be well soon. I have always admired you even though I haven't been writing much due to my own heart illness for the past 2-3 years. Suffice it to say, I'm doing very well now with a great pacemaker and a wonderful cardiologist. Now, about you: I'm glad you caught your mysterious illness before it was so debilitating you would be immobilized! Even though I have not had time to think about your shocking illness I want to quickly wish you a speedy recovery! You are a special alive kind of guy and we all need you to be you, Walt. I have to say one thing: I myself am not getting any younger, in fact now include bucket list projects in my schedule. I now am taking classical guitar lessons, "memoir" lessons and many lunches out with friends and trips with friends. Went to see the mermaids underwater show at WeekiWachee Springs a couple of weeks ago. It has been very stimulating for my art spirit. I love my new relaxed life. Maybe your own art spirit wants more cool outings! It's never too late to have fun.

on Thursday, June 10th, Lee said

Transverse Myelitis sounds really terrible. Any paralysis can be terribly frightening; one spawned by a tetanus shot can be more horrifying. The concept of a stroke is even more disabling. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. I can't believe what you went through I don't know if I could have remained as calm when my body had failed me. You are a determined individual and I think that is what makes you so formidable in the art world . I think that creativity and anything artistic can feed the passion and when the passion is activated we can overcome any obstacle within reason. Of course I would have done some screaming. I hate when my body lets me down. I want to toast your health. You and your body have survived the baptism of fire by Tranverse Myelitis. You are ready to cloak yourself in the passion of art and do battle with the critics.

on Sunday, June 6th, Lynda Lehmann said

Hi Walter. Sorry to hear about your setback. Regardless of your intellectual curiosity and critical thinking ability, it must have been quite frightening.

I have a feeling that so many of our health issues are drug and vaccine induced. But it's so hard to control the variables--and testing will always be as unreliable as biased testers are, as well!

Have you looked into nutritional support for your nervous system?

Here's wishing you a quick and complete recovery in the short term, so you can get on with your active life in full stride.

Best wishes.

on Saturday, June 5th, O.P.Joshi said

Dear, You have taken the physical problem as an intellectual or academic problem for anylisis. I think your thoughts and mental strength helped in treatment. Creativity is always helpful. It will be interesting to expose your sketches done in the hospital. This act will support all creative people. Wish you long and active life.

on Thursday, June 3rd, Annette Labedzki said

Wow, hope you feel better soon! Men never go to the hospital. My husband dropped a 45 pound weight on his foot, in severe pain he went directly back to work and finished working a patient (he is a dentist) he almost passed out falling on the patient. He still didn't go to the hospital, finally a few weeks later his dental assistant took some xrays of his toes and discovered that the bones were all smashed, not just broken, SMASHED! Then infections started kicking in and if he had gone to the hospital he could have prevented some pain. I was in Winnipeg at the time otherwise I would have taken him of course.

on Wednesday, June 2nd, Carol Spicuzza said

Holy sh*t, Walt! I can't believe you didn't go to the hospital right away. So glad you're going to be okay. Hope you are back to yourself as soon as possible.

with concern,

Carol

on Tuesday, June 1st, maestro... said

Walter,

Bummer, man! Love your serenity through the ordeal and the lucidity to express it. Godspeed! -JLM